07 Januar 2014

Achtung, Wissen ist ansteckend

(für deutsch, s. unten)

A French portrait
painter sat in his favourite cafe sipping his wine. His first small
bottle finished, he was about to
order a second, when his eyes fell on a headline of a paper, ’Hard
Times Coming’, so instead of
ordering his usual second bottle, he called for his check.

’Is there
anything wrong with the wine?’ asked the landlord.

’The wine is
good, but I didn’t order a second bottle because hard times are
coming and we must economise’
explained the artist.’

Hard times’
said the landlord. ’Then my wife must not order that silk dress we
planned but must take one of
cotton.’

’Hard times’
repeated the dressmaker when the order was cancelled. ’This is no
time to expand. I mustn't make the
improvement I had planned in this place.’

’Hard times,
eh’? said the builder, when the dressmaker cancelled the plans.
’Then I cannot have my wife’s
portrait painted.’

So he wrote to
the artist and cancelled the order.

After receiving
the letter, the artist went again to his favourite cafe and ordered a
small bottle of wine to soothe him. On a nearby chair was the paper
in which he had read of hard times a few days before. He picked
it up to read more closely and found that it was ten years old.